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Playback Problems

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I’m embarrassed at the amount of time I have been talking to friendly support staff recently so will mention my current problems here first.  I have a S1 system that includes three Sonos Ones (downgraded by support).  Two of the Ones (Kitchen and Family Room) work fine individually from my tablet but, when I ask Alexa to play music on either one of them, both start playing and after stopping play they are listed as a group.  Alexa can’t hear across the 2 rooms.  Is there some setting that’s wrong?

 

A second problem is my music library located on a 1TB usb drive.  Some albums will play but when others are selected I get “unable to connect to Desktop ….”, even though seconds before I was connected ok….

Is it simple or am I on to support again?   Thanks.

 

 

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 3 July 2023, 21:49

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Ken_Griffiths

I’m embarrassed at the amount of time I have been talking to friendly support staff recently so will mention my current problems here first.  I have a S1 system that includes three Sonos Ones (downgraded by support).  Two of the Ones (Kitchen and Family Room) work fine individually from my tablet but, when I ask Alexa to play music on either one of them, both start playing and after stopping play they are listed as a group.  Alexa can’t hear across the 2 rooms.  Is there some setting that’s wrong?

This grouping between the speakers is likely happening because you have the two (Kitchen and Family Room) in the same Amazon Alexa ‘enabled’ Group. Go into the Alexa App and remove the devices from the group and see if that resolves the issue.

A second problem is my music library located on a 1TB usb drive.  Some albums will play but when others are selected I get “unable to connect to Desktop ….”, even though seconds before I was connected ok….

Is it simple or am I on to support again?   Thanks.

My thoughts here are that your USB drive, or PC are going into sleep/standby mode. Perhaps check the power saving settings in your computer control panel.

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Thank you very much Ken.  I went into the Alexa App and eventually found that the speakers were indeed grouped.  I never grouped them but I’ve adjusted the settings and now both are working ok separately.

I went into Library Settings and deleted the listed folder.  I set up a different folder and now I have access to my music files, though may be accessing the MP3 folder and not the FLAC one.

Thanks again for your advice.

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My Summer Project of trying to get my Sonos System working properly continues…..

After the success of my first step the second, unfortunately, was a failure.  After 1h 23m of trying to get my new Boost to be recognised by my S1 Controller the support agent and I had to give up.  We tried all manner of ways but eventually decided that as my system was working without the Boost it might as well go back to Sonos for refund.

Onwards!  My wife gave me a Roam for Christmas and I had it working but now have no control over it.  It switches on and plays, I guess, whatever was last selected probably from Spotify.  I need it on my S2 App (last used to downgrade my Sonos Ones) and believe I do this by starting a new system and then looking for the Roam.  However, when I open the S2 App it immediately locks onto my S1 system and invites me to update it.  No option of starting a new system appears.

Before calling support again I thought I would pose the problem here.  Ideally I need the S1 system to be invisible to the S2 Controller.  Any suggestions?

buzz

Power down all of the S1 units and close the S1 controller while you setup the S2 system. I also think that it would be a good idea to uninstall the S2 controller and reinstall a fresh copy. When you install the new S2 controller, join an existing system rather than setting up a new system.

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Thank you Buzz, that’s helpful advice - in effect I render my S1 system invisible by disconnecting it!

I’ve done that and got my Roam working on S2.  Using the S2 app I can select music on Spotify; I can also get Alexa to tell me the time or the weather.

However, with me it always seems to be two steps forward but one back - I can’t persuade Alexa to play from Spotify.  She tells me to:

Enable the skill for Roam in Alexa and then ask her to Discover Devices.

There does not seem to be a specific skill for Roam in Alexa, just Sonos which I believe is already there for the Roam (as I could disable it). 

When I ask Alexa to discover new devices she can’t find any - not surprising since I’m asking her to discover herself.  When I ask Alexa to enable Roam she asks if I mean Harmony Hub and when I say No, she says she can’t find Roam - even though In Alexa my Roam appears in the list of devices.

I’ve been going round in circles for over an hour.  I didn’t use to be stupid but my confidence is waning.  Is there something I’m missing?  Maybe a brain?

 

 

Ken_Griffiths

Thank you Buzz, that’s helpful advice - in effect I render my S1 system invisible by disconnecting it!

I’ve done that and got my Roam working on S2.  Using the S2 app I can select music on Spotify; I can also get Alexa to tell me the time or the weather.

However, with me it always seems to be two steps forward but one back - I can’t persuade Alexa to play from Spotify.  She tells me to:

Enable the skill for Roam in Alexa and then ask her to Discover Devices.

There does not seem to be a specific skill for Roam in Alexa, just Sonos which I believe is already there for the Roam (as I could disable it). 

When I ask Alexa to discover new devices she can’t find any - not surprising since I’m asking her to discover herself.  When I ask Alexa to enable Roam she asks if I mean Harmony Hub and when I say No, she says she can’t find Roam - even though In Alexa my Roam appears in the list of devices.

I’ve been going round in circles for over an hour.  I didn’t use to be stupid but my confidence is waning.  Is there something I’m missing?  Maybe a brain?

If you remove and reinstall the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App make sure the skill is linked to your S2 account and S2 Household and not the S1 HH. Note too that Alexa will search for devices, but if they are already in your list then it will not discover them again. So simply ignore the message that no devices were discovered. However you also need the following things in place too…

  1. The Spotify service must be a subscription based account and not a ‘free’ account.
  2. The Spotify service must be added to both your Sonos App and the Amazon Alexa App and in the latter case it need to be set as the ‘default’ service for music playback in the Alexa music settings.
  3. If not done already, the Alexa voice assistant needs to be installed on the Sonos Roam via the S2 Sonos App - ‘Settings/Services & Voice/Amazon Alexa’.
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Thank you Ken, appreciate your help.  Looking at your points:

  1. It is a sub account
  2. I think Spotify is on Sonos S2 because it plays manually via the App and is also on Alexa as it is listed as default on both of my profiles (family and d)
  3. Alexa talks to me on the Roam, which is the only device on S2.

This only leaves me with “make sure the skill is linked to your S2 ….. and not S1”.  I can’t see how to check this.  Also, when I reconnect the S1 system I will want Alexa on the downgraded Sonos Ones.

I can try support tomorrow.

 

Regards,  Derek

Ken_Griffiths

Thank you Ken, appreciate your help.  Looking at your points:

  1. It is a sub account
  2. I think Spotify is on Sonos S2 because it plays manually via the App and is also on Alexa as it is listed as default on both of my profiles (family and d)
  3. Alexa talks to me on the Roam, which is the only device on S2.

This only leaves me with “make sure the skill is linked to your S2 ….. and not S1”.  I can’t see how to check this.  Also, when I reconnect the S1 system I will want Alexa on the downgraded Sonos Ones.

I can try support tomorrow.

 

Regards,  Derek

If your S1 and S2 system are both on the same Sonos account, then when you link the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App, the two households should be presented for you to select one of them as part of the sharing agreement (see attached ‘example’ screenshot) - just ensure you select the Sonos S2 system to link Alexa to that system.

Note that the Alexa account can only be linked to either S1 or S2 and not both - so just ensure S2 is selected for your Roam to work with Alexa.

Hope that assists you further.👍

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Thanks Ken, owe you a beer.  The deeper I dig, the murkier it gets.  I’ve never seen a screen anything like the one you sent.  Maybe it’s Apple and I’m Android?  If I can only have Alexa on one account then I would choose the S1 over the S2.  Could I have a different Alexa account using a different email address for S2?  I’ve not reconnected my S1 yet to see if it is still ok with Alexa …..

Sorry to bother you.

Ken_Griffiths

Yes, you can have two Alexa accounts, I guess🤔, I just use Alexa VA and SVC for S2 and the Google VA for S1.

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Update:

I did not appreciate that I could not have Alexa on both S1 and S2.  Now have Google VA on the Roam/S2; not easy to connect (I failed) and it took support 32 mins to do it.  Reconnected S1 and all ok including Alexa.  Nearly there …. now to sort Music Library!

Thanks.

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